Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Thoughts on the Ghouls



















Pity the ghoul that you meet, for their fate is almost surely worse than yours. Ghouls are humans, just like you and me. Unlike you and me, however, they've been subjected to catastrophic levels of radiation. Not enough to kill them outright, but more than enough to cause some rather drastic mutations. Back when the bombs dropped, not every vault was quite as secure, and some people never made it to safety. These were the first generation of ghouls. I hear some of them are still alive, too. Apparently one of the side effects of the ghoul transformation is an unnaturally long lifespan. To spend centuries in such a state is a chilling thought.

Growing up in the vault, I read comic books about a creature called zombies. If I hadn't had the first ghoul I met ask me if I wanted to order a drink, I might have gotten the wrong impression. For the most part, they're good people, just trying to survive out here like you or me. They have a city, of sorts, known as Underworld.

One more thing. There's two varieties of ghouls that aren't so nice: feral ghouls and glowing ones. The former type are ghouls that have lost all sense and reason. Brutal and violent, they tend to travel in packs and reside in the derelict buildings and caves that dot the wasteland. Glowing ones are those unfortunates who were subjected to such massive doses of radiation that they literally glow in the dark. Put both out of their misery when you can.

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